Update: Having asked you good folks for an easier/cheaper alternative for home use, here are findings:

Regrettably GIMP is not for my OS platform, but receives many good mentions.

Photoshop and Elements are horses for courses - i.e. expensive and steep learning curve (PS rather more than Elements on both counts) Both requiring a lot of available resources etc. I came across "Photoshop Speedup 1.0" which is in German, but seems to address some time-delay loading problems).

Someone said they had both PS and Elements, also ACDSEE7 Powerpack and ThumbPlus version 7 - all at the same time - since one or another would achieve what they wanted to do without having to cross-switch between progs.

www.Photofiltre.com seems to be a fave with some (and I can see why). It's a French site (though from an Italian designer I think) which is free for home use and mostly with English translations. Sure you can't put this on your CV if you're meant to have learned Adobe, but worth checking out for personal use.

Other mentions are Pixia, Picasa2, and Irfanview of course.

This has been a public service broadcast - a thread that can go where it wishes

Mo

Mo, what platform are you running?

GIMP is available on Windows, MacOSX and Unix....

http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

Chris

Mo' date=' what platform are you running?

GIMP is available on Windows, MacOSX and Unix....

[url']http://www.gimp.org/downloads/[/url]

Chris

It's kinda like one of those card games where you can choose another card, then discard it if it says "Win ME"

The best advice is always that to upgrade to XP, one needs to do a clean install - the very best alternative seems to be to buy a new hard drive, install XP on that, then sit it "side by side" with existing drive, especially if loading a Photoshop-type hog, or at least re-partition.

Don't know if I have enough slots to do that - sure don't have the dosh or time to do be diddly-doddlying with that for the moment (mainly cos of the known horror-show of XP incompatible drivers, given what I have loaded), TBH.

Saaaaaah! :hilarius: Bet you're sorry you asked which platform now

Seriously though, much appreciated - I'm all ears

Mo

PS My main reason for posting was to advise alternatives for photo editing for home use. Didn't mean to hijack my own thread

There are some free paintshop pro programs out there I think psp5 was probably the best and it will do most things and runs very well on all the os I have used

I use Photoshop Elements 3, but also Irfanview (its free and very good)

I use Photoshop Elements 3, but also Irfanview (its free and very good)

Hi! Unfortunately PE3 doesn't work with WinME (nor does 2, nor in fact do most of the Adobe creative suite issues. I believe the last one (ME-wise) was the singular (not suite) PS6.1 - i.e. patched, but not easy to find, and apparently not that easy to learn either).

I have had Irfanview for a while

Decided to download both Picasa2 (limited in what it does, but simplistically speedy), and Photofiltre (more extensive and has website tutorials). Both freebies for home use BTW. Not that I'm being skinflint, but having to recognise what will run on my OS including resource hogging, also considering "money to be spent for purpose intended"; also learning curve.

Incidentally, for anyone who is running Photoshop and finding it slow to load, I came across a snippet software prog: "PhotoshopSpeedup 1.0". It's written in German (which isn't really a problem IMO) and clearly I can't test it since don't have Adobe PS, but thought it was worth mentioning.

Regards

Mo

Just an update.

you could always obtain photoshop by illegal means then update it which makes it legal

you could always obtain photoshop by illegal means then update it which makes it legal

Doesn't make it right though. Anyway, true perhaps for others, and I came across 1 +2 "openers" that would do this. Peeps have to make their own mind up about going this route. However, as it doesn't run on my platform (WinMe) there's not a lot of point - but thanks anyway

The huge amount of resource, optimum drive speed etc it (Adobe) takes, plus learning curve (whether CS, PS or Elements), makes it worthwhile IMO to download a trial version to see if it works (if on XP) (preferably having set a restore point) and if it works and it's what people actually do need/want for their requirements, then take it from there.

IMO photo manipulaton is here to stay, one way or another.

Regards

Mo

IMO photo manipulaton is here to stay' date=' one way or another.

Regards

Mo[/quote']

sadly

Paint Shop Pro? Might have been mentioned further up the thread? Reasonable cost, easy to use (IMO) and has quite a lot of features. Again, not sure about WinME compatibility. You probably should be looking to move to XP by now anyway

From past experiences, I found ME was awful...

HTH

Steve

Paint Shop Pro? Might have been mentioned further up the thread? Reasonable cost' date=' easy to use (IMO) and has quite a lot of features. Again, not sure about WinME compatibility. You probably should be looking to move to XP by now anyway

From past experiences, I found ME was awful...

HTH

Steve[/quote']

Can't recall if PaintShop Pro has been mentioned, cos it's similar to Elements, ACDSee7 Powerpack and ThumbsPlus version 7 - i.e. all payware and it depends what you want to do (i.e. professional or home use).

Decided on Photofiltre and Picasa 2 (freeware) for me just now (installed and OK).

XP-wise, it's either a new separate drive or a whole new computer with re-installs on almost every single driver :frown: and I've just bought a new supply of coal to shovel in the back

That said, everyone is now waiting to see if XP.SP2 is gonna keep going, or will soon be replaced by the "next best thing" (complete with a whole new set of initial bugs). If so, hands up everyone who's going to upgrade to the undoubtedly forthcoming version of Windows???

Serious question about willigness to upgrade OS, cos I'm sticking with ME (which was the bees knees at the time, but agree is totally pants).

Regards

Mo

That said' date=' everyone is now waiting to see if XP.SP2 is gonna keep going, or will soon be replaced by the "next best thing" (complete with a whole new set of initial bugs). If so, hands up everyone who's going to upgrade to the undoubtedly forthcoming version of Windows???

Serious question about willigness to upgrade OS, cos I'm sticking with ME (which was the bees knees at the time, but agree is totally pants).

[/quote']

Well based on previous incarnations, Win2000 got to a Service Pack 4 stage and NT before it got to 6 :eek: Don't think the same will happen with XP though.

Can't see Longhorn (Vista) being available much before the beginning of 2007 so I'd recommend jumping on the XP bandwagon really. You could pickup a 40Gb drive and therefore a copy of XP Home OEM (as you're buying hardware at the same time) for

Paintshop pro will work fine on ME ...it's just ME that doesn't work PSP 5 can be got for free (legally) and the new one (9) is about

Well based on previous incarnations, Win2000 got to a Service Pack 4 stage and NT before it got to 6 :eek: Don't think the same will happen with XP though.

Can't see Longhorn (Vista) being available much before the beginning of 2007 so I'd recommend jumping on the XP bandwagon really. You could pickup a 40Gb drive and therefore a copy of XP Home OEM (as you're buying hardware at the same time) for

Paintshop pro will work fine on ME ...it's just ME that doesn't work PSP 5 can be got for free (legally) and the new one (9) is about

elements 2 should be found quite cheap (